A CONTRACT for millions of pounds of funding designed to ease traffic in the area of a planned 6,000 home estate in Bicester has been agreed.

At its meeting on Tuesday, October 15, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet agreed the deal for £6.7million to construct a new railway bridge in the northwest of Bicester, with the aim of building a new main road under the bridge in the future to replace Howes Lane.

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The £6.7million comes from a central government funding scheme called the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Cherwell District Council was successful in bidding for the funding in early 2018.

Bicester Advertiser:

This is what the new road would look like.

It followed approval for the tunnel and new road layout in 2016, to ease an expected surge in traffic resulting from the planned 6,000-home Bicester eco town.

However, according to a report to the OCC cabinet meeting on October 15, the £6.7million is only enough to cover the costs of constructing the rail underpass, not the road itself.

The report said the costs of constructing both would be above the £10million limit available to district councils when they bid for projects.

The county council decided to focus on using the money available to build the bridge as this was the more complex part of the project.

Les Sibley, county councillor for Bicester West, said: “I welcome the money to build the underpass in that particular area. That is fantastic but we need the new realigned road itself actually built.

“I have been calling on the developers and the local authorities to come together to proceed with the realigned road. Let’s get on with it and build the road because it has such an impact on people living in the north west side of the town.”

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Mr Sibley warned if action was not taken on building the new road, then it could lead to ‘many years of delays’ in building all of the new eco homes.

Bicester Advertiser:

County councillors, from left, Les Sibley, Lawrie Stratford and Michael Waine pictured at the junction of Howes Lane and Bucknell Road in Bicester in 2016 when the rail bridge was first planned.

The report to cabinet said: “Further funding is being sought to enable the forward funding and delivery of the road and underpass.”

It also said the road will be built on land which is currently privately owned, and that owners will be contacted about which parts of their land will be needed for the road when the road design has been agreed.

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Construction work on the new rail bridge is likely to take place in Easter 2021, and will be carried out by Network Rail staff.

This date has been set as Network Rail has scheduled a four-day closure of the railway for works to take place in this time.

Changing the road layout in northwest Bicester has long been a desire of the local authorities, to help roads in the area cope with the extra traffic from the 6,000 home eco-development called NWBicester which is planned for the area.

Bicester Advertiser:

An artists illustration of part of the Elmsbrook estate.

Part of the planned eco-village has already been built by housing developer A2Dominion at the Elmsbrook estate.

The estate is currently home to 393 energy efficient homes, Gagle Brook Primary School and Elmsbrook Community House.

The new road line will run from Middleton Stoney Road roundabout to join Lord’s Lane, east of Purslane Drive. It will pass under the railway to the north of Avonbury Business Park.

Residents living near Howes Lane have previously expressed concerns about the continuing growth of Bicester and the planned eco town at NW Bicester fearing the current road cannot keep pace.